A final push towards Home & a HUGE thank you...

We move into the house tomorrow. To actually say those words out loud is pretty unreal; especially since the barn won't be finished, and the kitchen will be in the middle of being painted, but for the most part the farmhouse will be done. It has been a long and arduous journey, but the constant reminder that it is always for the love of a house made us push forward. This has not been fun, even though my sister keeps telling me I'm having the time of my life, I am not. I do however believe that living in the house will be the time of our lives!! We feel like we have been walking in a thick fog for the last six months, one foot in front of the other without really being able to 'see' where we were going, just knowing the goal was to make a home.

Now... we're going home! We have been "homeless" for a year and three months. Dan and I are tenders so we have greatly missed having a home to tend. The thought of having a neat and tidy home again filled with all of our antiques and treasures instead of moving boxes, and having a home we love instead of a rent house is a bit overwhelming at the moment.

I want to thank you all for following us on this journey. I especially want to thank those of you who leave us comments and emails along the way. I can not tell you what they have meant to me... some times there were days when I was beaten down and didn't know which way to turn, and then I would read a comment that encouraged me to continue the fight! You truly lifted my spirits on so many days when I all I wanted to do was give up. Your comments always reminded me to keep my eye on the end goal, wisdom that I so often needed to hear. You've made me laugh, you've made me cry and your presence in my life has been a huge gift to me. I can not imagine what this journey would have been like without your constant interest, support and understanding.

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...

I plan to take a wee bit of time off from the blog to slowly unpack, and to soak in the new house and our new surroundings. I think I just need to be quiet for a little while and just "listen." This is a favorite house quote from Under the Tuscan Sun that sums up what I am feeling right now...

"The new life might shape itself to the contours of the house, which already is at home in the landscape, and to the rhythms around it."

It is Spring here in New England. The trees have just started to leaf out, there are flowers blooming, and it all seems a huge metaphor as we too start our new life in our new house. To my family, old friends, and new friends... I thank you so much for your constant encouragement and support. I wish you Happy, and I will see you soon!
joan

oops...

Look what arrived today! Isn't she lovely?!! I think I'm in love!!!

One little, tiny hiccup..... somehow, the all-important "electrical outlet" was not installed on the range wall... Can you say "oh my head" ?

The Sub Zero didn't arrive with her sister range today, as it is on back-order because it only got ordered a couple of weeks ago (I've only stated I wanted this particular refrigerator since October) and I should have it mid-MAY!!!

Oh, and one more thing... we move in next Thursday :O!!

In the big remodel picture these are little, tiny problems, but considering that every day brings about 9 of these little "surprises" we are exhausted! Excuse me while I go open a bottle of wine!

Happy weekend to you!

She really is a sweet little thing isn't she?!!

miscellaneous purchases

Here are some purchases we've been acquiring over the last couple of months for the house...



Vintage Czechoslovakia chandelier for the master bath. It has really sweet scale; it's not too large and not too small, and is more wide than tall, so it really fits the room well. I fell hard for this little charmer- I love the glass arms and the sweet floral rosettes on the arms. I might take the bobeches off, I'm not sure yet.




This light will hang in the pantry. You'll be able to see the light through the transom while standing in the kitchen, so I wanted it to be pretty. The chain is new, so we'll replace that.

This three-arm light will go in the walk way between the kitchen and the Barn room. I will use different glass shades for this fixture, but I will use two of the glass shades in the photo for a sconce that goes over the guest bath sink.

This is the mantel for the new master bedroom fireplace. We were thrilled to find it! We had specfic size requirements since it is going around a direct vent gas fireplace and we needed certain combustible clearances. Most Victorian mantles are on the smaller side, so our search was proving difficult. We found it in Portland, Maine, five minutes before Portland Architectural Salvage closed. I knew it was the "one" the minute I saw it because it looked like a cousin to the living room and the dining room mantels! Here it is the night we bought it placed next to the living room mantle. The mantel is less ornate which seems appropriate since it is going upstairs and the formal, or public mantels would have been more ornate.




Here it is primed and ready to be painted. The original back board was long gone when we found the mantel, so I've had the carpenter add one. The rounded corners will have details that match the detail in the next photo. Besides the 'cousin' factor I also knew it was perfect because in all honesty, if I were to pick my perfect mantel I would have chosen a different one... but this isn't about me, it's about the house and this mantel was a perfect fit for the house.




Victorian Eastlake detailing. The grouping of the three 'dots' inside the cut lines will be the details I will copy to the back board.

These antique holophane shades will hang over the island in the kitchen. They are approximately 11" tall and 12" wide. They are being made into pendants at a fabulous lamp shop in Cape Neddick, Maine called Cranberry Hill. As you know, Dan usually makes all our lamps, chandeliers, and fixtures, but all of his lamp making parts are packed away...



This is the wonderful shop where the shades came from. Smith-Zukas Antiques in Wells, Maine.

Some other things: Notice the wood casing going in between the entry and living room. It just looked too contemporary having only a plastered edge. The newel post in the photo is primed ready to be painted black... it's our ode to those gorgeous antique front doors (that we love) that you see all over France done in a high gloss finish.

We drove by this house in Brattleboro, Vermont last weekend. We had gone to Vermont to antique for the day and stopped in Brattleboro for dinner.

Imagine how long it took to gather, sort, and stone this house?! Each row is a different size. Love the attention to detail. Wouldn't you love to know the story of who went to such lengths to achieve this perfection?!

the Coolio Garage and the Chunnel

The Coolio Garage is a name that Linda at ::Lime in the Coconut:: bestowed upon our "garagemahal," and Dan has adopted it as the garage's new name- thanks Linda! ;)

The chunnel is the passage between the new garage and the old basement. It was once a solid granite stone wall as you can see in the first photo. Why a chunnel you ask? Well, I can't really answer that, as I don't know myself. In fact one night, in the middle of the night, when I was lying awake thinking about all the work (i.e. $) going in to said chunnel, I woke Dan up to ask... "Now, why do we need a chunnel exactly?" He grumbled something about not liking a basement that didn't have a secondary exit, blah, blah, blah....basically, it was just one of those things that the "man of the house" decided he must have! So.... we now have a chunnel! If you can't find Dan or any of the "men" subs you'll find them down below just staring at the chunnel and/or the coolio garage! They all love the man cave! It's definitely a man-thing!




The original stone wall foundation on the ground floor of the barn. The new steps for the chunnel were cut through the stones that are seen between the two wooden posts in this photo.


The steps leading from the garage floor up to the basement floor through the chunnel. It is about a five foot elevation difference between the two spaces.

Chunnel step forms from basement level.

The chunnel pour through the basement window.

The finished pour. The chunnel steps going down into the garage.

This photo shows the front edge of the garage where the garage doors will go. Extra measures were taken to install a multi-tiered drain inside the garage.

Okay, even I admit this part is very "coolio"!! What you are looking at is the garage floor being laid with radiant heat tubing called Pex. For those of you in the South (or wherever you do not get snow), with all the snow and ice in the winter you will drive your car into the garage and snow/ice that has accumulated under the car/wheels while driving will melt and pool on the garage floor, then re-freeze, then "someone"steps on it, slips and breaks her finger........ So with this coolio system, said dropped snow/ice will either dry up or run off into the drain, so "someone" won't fall again...! And, it keeps your car nice and toasty when you climb into it in the cold winter!

Future temperature control center.
Isn't this a gorgeous rock wall?! As we told the guy who did the garage, the garage is now so beautiful it will be on the house tour! Six months ago it was a very creepy place!

Finished floor with concrete poured over the radiant heat. Chunnel steps on left in back of photo.



This photo shows the iron drains on the interior of the front of the garage. There are also hot and cold water valves so you can hose off the snow right in the garage! Again, for those who live without snow, the highway department puts down a mixture of salt and sand on the road after a snow fall and it all sticks to the bottom of your car and wrecks havoc on your paint finish and the metal body of your car . It's important to get it off as soon as possible to avoid rust.











The poured garage bays from the exterior.


Taadaa!!! The carriage doors are in! (sans the door hardware)

So, if you could...please let "Coolio-Garage-Man" (yet another Linda-ism!) know what you think of his man cave! I think he would get a big kick out of hearing what you all think! Thanks!

Lets talk Paint!

[Warning: If you don't like talking about paint, you might want to leave now and check in on my next post! Many might find this post boring, as I can wax poetic (and at great length!) when it comes to paint. There... you have been warned!]

I love paint! I mean, I really love paint. I read books about paint! One of my favorite paint books is Color by Donald Kaufman. For the last several months House Beautiful has been doing a regular column on paint colors... fun!
I love the psychology behind paint colors and picking paint colors! With so many factors going into picking the perfect color for a room it makes the process a bit overwhelming for lots people. For me, if you think of the process both logically and emotionally it will take some of the confusion out of it.

Here's my take on paint....

I think a lot of people are intimidated by so many choices. When you pick up a fan deck or look at the wall of paint chips at the paint store many people just give up then and there. Keep in mind, just like walking into a clothing store... you aren't going to like every dress you see, and even if you fall in love with a dress it might not look good on you!

Try to pick colors that evoke a certain feel in you and in your room. You can't just pick a color because it is pretty, or you like it, or it matches your sofa, or it looks great at your best friend's house.... Certainly all of those factors come into play, but picking based on only one of those choices might not get you the perfect color for your room.

Keep an open mind. Sometimes a color you don't necessarily love on the chip will make your room sing because of the light in the room.

Don't become too attached to any color without seeing it in the room you want to paint at different times of the day. You might love it in the morning and hate it at night.... Paint large patches on the walls or on poster board to really get a feel for the color. Painting your samples on poster board lets you move the sample around the room holding it next to the floor or your ceiling.

Don't fall in love with a paint because of it's name. It sounds funny, but people do it!

I think a huge factor in paint picking success is the natural light you have or don't have in the room. Our last house didn't have a lot of natural light (and then we had plantation shutters on all the windows which made it even darker still), so because of this I was able to use darker, deeper tones of colors. This farmhouse has amazing light and I was shocked to pull out the samples of colors from my last house and to see how deep they were. They didn't read dark in the old house because they were in a darker environment. I've always described my palette as the colors you see when looking at a dried hydrangea. My new colors could be described the same, only the colors have lighter values than my old colors.

Take your time. I spent hours going through colors. I would dismiss a color only to go back to it again! Be patient. Slowly, but surely the right color(s) will speak to you if you look, and listen to how you feel when you see the color in the room.

Decide what you want to draw attention to and attention away from; and make the colors work for you to that end. In our last house people would always comment that they loved my paint colors. My colors brought your eye into the room. I intended to do that as I didn't want your eye looking out the window and seeing my neighbor's garage door! I didn't have a lot of architectural detail (it was a 1950's ranch), so color played a powerful role in defining and describing the interior space. The farmhouse is totally different. I don't want you to walk in and see any particular wall color... I want you to feel the house, and see the fabulous views through all the windows. I don't want your eye to stop on the inside. (Hey, I told you I liked the psychology part of paint!!) I wanted all the colors to gently play off of one another. I didn't want there to be big contrasts in colors between rooms (I used much more contrasting paint colors in our last house.) There's a natural gentleness and flow to the house and I wanted that to be complimented by the paint colors.

I like Benjamin Moore paints. When we were selling our house people would walk in and say, "Oh, you just painted" to which Dan and I would smile knowing that the last time we painted was 15 years ago! Their paints hold up well to say the least. I also love their additional sheens which I haven't found with any other paint company (they might be out there, I just haven't found them!)

I am very fond of chameleon colors- colors that change throughout the day. Colors that read one way in one light, and read another in a different light.

So, after much ado here is my list of colors. Some of which even surprised me, even now I will look at a chip when I'm not at the farmhouse and think "that's the color?" but, in the house the color works beautifully with the light. I'm really please with how they all feel when you see them in the room.

My colors:
All trim/doors/cabinets : White Dove in Latex Satin Impervo
All ceilings (except where noted) : White Dove in Pearl Finish
All walls & ceiling paint is BM's Regal line of paints.

Living Room/Reading Room/Stair Walls & Upstairs Hall: Ashwood OC-47 in Eggshell (a soft gray/green/putty)

Dining Room: Halo OC-46 in Eggshell (a shade lighter than the living room. a whisper of a color. I wanted something that was soothing and would make my ironstone and white plates pop!)

Kitchen: Gray Owl OC-52 in Eggshell (a gray with lots of green undertones)

Guest Bedroom: Overcast OC-43 in Eggshell (green with gray undertones)

Guest Bedroom: Misty Air OC- 44 in Eggshell (golden with gray/brown undertones)

Guest Bath: Moonshine OC-56 in Eggshell /ceiling also in same color (a gray/green)

Master Bedroom: Titanium OC-49 in Eggshell (gray with just a hint of blue)

Master Bath: Horizon OC-53 in Eggshell /ceiling also in same color (for me that elusive french gray/blue color that is so hard to pinpoint! Sometimes you look at it and think it's gray and other times you think it's blue.) The tub-body will be painted Sleigh Bells 1480 in High Gloss which is a darker, deeper version of Horizon.

(if you're still with me at this point.... thanks for letting me go on, and on, and on.....!)

May I whine???

It's been a rough week. We are in finish mode, so problems at this point are all big issues. We wake up every day knowing that there will be at least three forest fires to put out when we get to the house. We are emotionally and physically exhausted. We feel we are in a constant, daily fight for "our" house. I don't have the energy to tell you all the problems, and quite honestly I just can't bear to put them in writing because it makes them all too real. Let's just say my face has broken out, I don't sleep , I have fever blisters and my back is doing this stress thing it does... goes out for no reason, well other than stress that is! Needless to say I am very purdy!! Okay, now I'm done with the whining (but not the wine!) portion of this post. Thank you for your patience!

I will now show you some good things that have happened around the house!

As I mentioned in my Kitchen Ingredient post I found some reproduction hardware that are a near perfect match to the original antique iron bin pulls that are on the built-in to the right of the kitchen fireplace. They arrived today and are perfect! They are unfinished brass and I will paint them to match the iron. I ordered some other pulls from another company that were similar and were actually iron, but the detailing on them wasn't as crisp, so I went with the brass. They will go on the island. The hardware on the perimeter cabinets is polished nickle. Did I mention they're solid brass and $5.69 each! Such a lucky find!

From the same company, House of Antique Hardware, I found these great brackets that I will add to the sink side of the kitchen! I love how they change the feel of the room.

Door on the right is the door that I designed/drew out for the french doors in the kitchen and the master bedroom. The door on the left is what I got. Hellllloooooo..... can you say 'not to scale?' Oh my head! The corrected doors were installed today. The doors open out. We talked about out-swing doors, but I decided I wanted them in-swing somewhere along the way. I told GC this, but somehow this didn't get told to the window/door company (and what a surprise GC doesn't seem to 'remember' this conversation!)... I will say; however, (and please don't tell my GC!) that I am really liking them! They take up less space inside and from my research they are the norm in Europe! We have lots of wind at our house, so I am working on how to secure them while open.

All of the floors in the farmhouse (with the exception of the new Carlisle floors in the dining room, the kitchen and the master bath) have been stained and have four coats of low VOC tung oil on them. The minute they were able to be walked on (booties only at this point) the painters moved in to do finish coats, so I don't have many pictures. This is one of the guest bedrooms.

This is the dining room. The floor in this room had been changed to oak at some point. The rest of the house is pine, so we took it back to pine. Come to find out we have a mix of flooring, which was common as they would use whatever was available to them at the time. The whole process has been a huge leap of faith as the stain literally changes throughout the entire process. I really like and trust the floor guy who was recommended by Carlisle, thank goodness! My goal is a medium brown with yellow/gold undertones showing through. Because we have lots of red pine mixed with our eastern white pine it first read RED! Floor guy kindly returned my phone call last Saturday night when I called in a panic because my floors looked red! He assured me (mind you he had already told me this, but 'seeing' it made me forget everything I had heard!) that the floor would change color throughout the staining and layers of tung oil, and then even after it was dried the color would settle down and the color would evolve. And I'll be darned if it doesn't have more golden tones than it did just two days ago. Again... a huge leap of faith! In the end the floors are really beautiful, and work well with the paint colors (I promise a paint post is coming!)


New floor going down in the master bath just today! Isn't the beadboard sweet?!

What do you collect?

As I've mentioned, 99.9% of everything we own has been packed away in moving boxes for the past year and two months. To say we miss all of our pretties is an understatement. Everything we have tells a story, and we miss that connection to our past. I've been so ingrained in the remodel that I haven't had time to even think about unpacking and where things will go. But, I am finding that I have more and more moments of excitement at the thought of unpacking all of our treasures! As my sister Patti keeps telling me, it will be like Christmas over and over and over! This has got me thinking of all our collections. Having been an antiques dealer I have many collections! A couple of my vintage/antique (we go by the general rule it has to be 100 years old to be called an antique) collections are:

~white ironstone

~hotel silver

~hotel silver flatware
~green yellow ware
~horn handled knives
~mirrors
~tortoiseshell boxes and frames
~metal birds
~horn and sterling magnifying glasses
~white coral
~alabaster grapes (in creams and off-whites only)
~oil paintings
~herbariums
~horn carving sets
~mercury glass
~zinc roof finials
~marble urns
~French confit jars
~small green ginger jars
~japanese fishing floats
~Santos
~French processional crosses
~blue and white ginger jars

Today in our travels we were lucky enough to find two new additions! This gorgeous American horn and sterling carving set. It is marked PAT'D MAY 7th 1878. We love the beading around the cuffs. They are in perfect condition and we paid $27!

This sweet little piece of coral... $5!

So, now it's your turn... I would love to hear about what things you collect. You can list all your collections, your top-five favorites, your biggest... any way you want to play is fine by me!

kitchen countertops

The stone countertops have been installed and are gorgeous!

Starting with the beautiful Venatino on the island! I love the movement in the piece, and it goes beautifully with the soapstone on the perimeter of the kitchen. In the end the carrara would have been lost in the room, so it's a perfect fit!

The soapstone. The stone was cut last Saturday, so I will wait till this Saturday before I start to oil it. The process, using mineral oil, is once a week for the first month; once a month for the first year; then yearly after that. A lot of people don't like the maintenance involved with soapstone, but I think it's a small price to pay for such a beautiful stone.

The soapstone will darken dramatically once it's oiled which will really change the look of the room.

This is the installer cutting notches out of our new kitchen fireplace hearth stone to make it fit flush to the fireplace. The living room and the dining room have their original (cracks and all!) soapstone; I was planning to use soapstone for the kitchen too. The day we went to template the stone our fabricator kindly offered us the rest of the Venatino slab for our kitchen hearth stone (I think he just felt sorry for us for spending so much money... ;) Dan and I both thought it would be too white and would look awful, but hey... it was free and if it didn't work we would have a nice little marble table top.

Well.... when we saw it in place we both thought it was perfect! It was much more gray than we had envisioned and really brought out the gray in the mortar of the brick wall. The part of the slab that it came from was totally different from the island, so it really doesn't match which is a good thing! We're still so shocked at how perfect it is. A happy unexpected surprise!

The master vanity top!


I used a coved edge to match the feel of the vintage piece. There is also a four-inch backsplash that will be attached when the vanity is installed .

Isn't the edge pretty?!! Also note the beadboard going on the walls.